


The Strong Man Knows

by ModernAgeSomniari



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:21:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24899833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ModernAgeSomniari/pseuds/ModernAgeSomniari
Summary: A small snippet, slice of life in the burgeoning relationship between these two ridiculous men.  Basically, I'm a massive sap.
Relationships: Dorian Pavus/Male Trevelyan, Male Inquisitor/Dorian Pavus
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	The Strong Man Knows

Dorian knew he’d come. Or at least, he hoped he would.

Daniel Trevelyan was not a man that showed emotion if it didn’t serve him, did not accept defeat and certainly, definitely did not allow anyone to see him weak. Probably even himself.

Even so, Dorian had caught a look in those beautiful eyes earlier that day, when Danny had sought him out in the library. To ‘check if he was alright’, he’d said. Bollocks. They’d sparred and flirted the way they usually did - Dorian was not about to pretend he himself was innocent of deflection, perish the thought. Only, all of a sudden, he couldn’t ignore the green of the rift out of the fade glaring in memory behind his eyes, the only glimpse he and the others could get of their three comrades their outlines against the demon. The gut-wrenching hesitation in Danny’s familiar silhouette before two of the figures surged passed the Nightmare while the third hurled themselves between them and it. So he’d asked Danny how he was. Whether or not he, their fearless Inquisitor, was ‘all right’?

And what had he got in return? A shocked, tense moment of silence and one word.

“Hawke.”

It was over almost as soon as it had started. Danny had shifted away when Dorian had tried to touch him, a parody of his usual smirk on his face. He’d thrown one last flirt Dorian’s way and then left, pointedly not going up to see Leliana like he’d said he would.

So, that night, when there was a breath of a knock at Dorian’s door before it opened, Dorian was already awake. There was a small candle on the wooden dresser next to his bed, dim enough he couldn’t see details, but he’d long memorised Danny’s shape by then, anyway. The room was small and close, the silence pressing in on him. The sheets were loud against his bedclothes as he shifted, pushing himself up on one arm.

“Daniel…”

The door stopped on its way closed and Dorian sucked in whatever else he was going to say, holding his breath in the sudden fear that Danny would leave. He only breathed again when the sliver of light from the corridor outside started shrinking again and, very carefully, he swung his legs out of bed. Danny was still, shadow and the fall of his hair obscuring his face. Dorian’s heart was less beating and more trying to tear itself out his chest through his throat, but he forced his feet to stay planted on the stone floor, his hands loosely resting on the bed.

He just watched as Danny came forward. He was still in his day clothes, although they were rumpled. His hair was a damn mess, too. Like he’d been running his hands through it. He was aware he was letting his mind run, but he truly didn’t know what was coming next and yet knew with certainty that, whatever it was, he needed to let Danny start it. This was not his normal position. Especially because he had a horrible suspicion that if what Danny wanted was a quick roll in the sheets to take his mind off things, Dorian might have to refuse out of some sort of pathetic self-preservation. 

Something in the defeated set of Danny’s shoulders, the memory of fleeting vulnerability in his face when Dorian had asked, told him that wasn’t what was about to happen.

What did happen punched a hole in his gut and a breath from his chest. Danny came close enough their legs were a hair’s breadth from touching and then fell, slowly but inexorably, to his knees. Before Dorian had time to do anything other than lift his hands from the sheets, Danny had just fallen forward, slumping into the cradle of Dorian’s legs, his forehead hitting somewhere around Dorian’s sternum with an odd thump. His heart now definitely somewhere near his tonsils, Dorian just had time to gently rest his hands on Danny’s shoulders before he felt strong, wiry arms go around his waist and the first awful, silent shudder. Another came, then another and another. Dorian was dimly aware he should be doing something, but the concept of Danny crying had frozen him. A laboured, sucking breath inwards and suddenly he could move again, curling his upper body around the man in his lap, smoothing his hands down the cloth-covered back to hold him fast against him, knees gripping whatever part of Danny’s chest they could find.

He felt Danny tense, sensed him realize that this was somehow humiliating and decided he was having none of it.

“Let it happen, amatus. Let it. The strong man knows that all this kept inside will kill him. Let it go.”

His voice sounded very loud in the dim silence of his room. Threre was an awful moment in time where Danny’s body just froze within his embrace and then fingers tightened on the flesh on his waist tight enough to bruise and, this time, the shudder came with a sound. Small and still controlled, but a sound nonetheless. Dorian clenched his own eyes shut and buried his face between Danny’s shoulder blades, holding him fast and strong with every ounce of love he could muster. He couldn’t even bring himself to care about the endearment that had just slipped from his lips like it belonged there. He was never a man to lie to himself, anyway. So he covered his Inquisitor with his body like he could stand between this ridiculous, beautiful man and the world that wanted everything from him. Held him as he wept and started to wonder whether, in fact, it was this he had been made for.


End file.
